With the proliferation of racist incidents, the media has labeled 2002 as "a season of ethnic terror."

As in previous years, anti-Semitic incidents were plentiful, including violence against Jews and their property and the proliferation of anti-Semitic propaganda and conspiracy theories. While there appears to be a slight increase in the number of incidents over the same period in previous year, in contrast to previous years, recent manifestations of anti-Semitism in Russia were more violent, in some cases mimicking the methods used by terrorist organizations.

In particular, there is growing alarm over a spate of copy-cat incidents in which signs with anti-Semitic slogans are prominently posted on highways and city streets. In some cases, explosives are hidden behind the signs, injuring individuals who have stopped to remove the offensive signs. The first such incident appeared in May, and similar incidents have occurred elsewhere across the country.

Anti-Semitic signs with real or fake bombs have appeared on a regular basis on Russian streets since May.

The first such explosion occurred on May 27 on the Kiev highway near Moscow. Twenty-eight year-old Tatiana Sapunova, returning with her car from her dacha, noticed a sign with the inscription "Death to the Kikes" posted along the highway. She stopped her car and tried to remove the sign, setting off an explosion, inflicting serious injuries and burns on her face. Russian and Israeli doctors managed to save her eyesight.

On June 5, anti-Semitic signs appeared on the streets of Voronezh. At around 8:00 in the morning at the intersection of Transportnaya Street and Uritskovaya Street, officials of the road inspection service in the Kominternovsk district saw one sign with the inscription "Beat the Kikes!" Two similar signs also appeared in the area near Antonova-Ovseenko Street and Suvopova Street. A package was attached to the signs' pole - clearly placed to suggest that they contained explosives. The package was later determined to be filled with bricks.

On June 12 on the 83rd kilometer of the Moscow ring road, a second poster with the inscription "Death to the Kikes" was discovered. A plastic bag with wires and timers was fastened to a column near the sign. Later, it was determined that it was a fake explosive.

On July 17 in Krasnoyarsk on the square in front of the airport, a box covered with anti-Semitic "slogans" was found. During an inspection no explosive device was found in the box.

On the night of June 30, two young people (a brother and sister, 19 and 22, respectively) who tried to attach a sign to an information board were caught by St. Petersburg police. The sign had the same standard slogan and a black plastic bag filled with cobblestones

On the morning on July 4, on one of the high-speed routes to Primorie, a piece of plywood with the inscription "Death to the Kikes" appeared. An object resembling an explosive device was fastened to the piece of plywood. Police officials quickly redirected traffic, estimated the area that might be in danger, and evacuated residents from three houses located nearby.

In order to avoid a possible explosion while removing the bomb, they decided to blow up the suspicious object. They discovered that the anti-Semitic sign was furnished only with a fake explosive device that resembled three TNT charges.

On July 8 near Tomsk, two individuals attempting to remove a plywood board with the inscription "Death to the Kikes" on the side of the Tomsk-Bogashevo Highway set off an explosion. Sergey Bogushevich was injured in the ear and in the leg. The other individual was not injured. The explosive device had been packed with nails.

A week later, on July 15, an anti-Semitic sign with a fake bomb attached to it appeared in the Yaisk district in the Kemerovo region on the side of a roadway. The fake bomb was constructed from metal cans and wires.

In total, within two months, eight such acts were carried out. To date, no perpetrators have been identified. However, if ultra-nationalist extremist groups are found to be behind some or all of these incidents, it indicates a trend towards more violent behavior, moving well beyond their usual activities: the spreading of anti-Semitic propaganda and vandalism. Many well-known Russian public officials and human rights figures do not rule out that some kind of organized structure may be behind this wave of anti-Semitic attacks.

During the first half of 2002, at least three attacks on synagogues in the Russian Federation were recorded. Also, there was one false threat to a synagogue and two desecrations of Jewish cemeteries.

On April 19, the day before Hitler's birthday, there was an explosion near a synagogue in Krasnoyarsk. A device that was planted in a neighboring courtyard exploded.

During the night of April 21, a swastika and anti-Semitic inscriptions appeared on the walls of a synagogue in Perm. Local Jewish leaders, hoping to draw attention to this type of problem, did not remove the painted inscriptions for several weeks.

On April 24 the Marina Rochya synagogue in Moscow, received an anonymous phone call warning of a bomb in the building that would explode that evening. The synagogue was evacuated. Fortunately, no explosion occurred. In 1998 an explosion badly damaged the synagogue.

On May 5 in Rostov-on-the-Don, the door of a local synagogue was set on fire. At that time, there was only one guard in the building. According to the administrator of the synagogue, after they managed to extinguish the fire, the perpetrators broke one of the windows of the building with a rock.

On May 23 in the village of Vyazovenki near Smolensk, a monument to the victims of Nazism was vandalized for the fourth time in two years. A swastika, nationalist slogans, and threats aimed at Jews were painted on the monument. On the same day, vandals broke into a Jewish cemetery, broke fences on the graves, smashed gravestones, and poured red paint all over the graves.

On February 10, 2002, the rabbi of the Moscow Choral synagogue, David Yshevaev, was beaten by unknown assailants.

In Samara on April 13, during a concert dedicated to Israel's Independence Day, extremists aggressively shouted insults and threats to the audience and carried signs with anti-Semitic slogans. Witnesses standing nearby noted that the police did not react.

On April 21 in Ulyanovsk, several skinheads attacked a Jewish boy who was returning from a meeting of the Jewish community, and brutally beat him. Due to the attack, the teenager was hospitalized with many injuries and a concussion. Two hours later, skinheads painted a building belonging to "Shalom," a Jewish society in Ulyanovsk, with anti-Semitic inscriptions.

On May 9 in Voronezh, musicians playing Jewish music were attacked by skinheads.

On May 28 in the center of Moscow, skinheads attacked Yakov Vershubsky, the 16-year-old son of a Voronezh rabbi who was on his way to morning prayers.

Criminal cases were initiated for all of the afore-mentioned poster attacks.

However, law enforcement agencies and the prosecutor's office refused to consider most of the cases as anti-Semitic, labeling them as acts of "hooliganism" or "terrorism." (In Tatiana Sapunova's case, the crime was qualified as the "intentional infliction of grave harm in a manner dangerous to society in general and motivated by ethnic hatred." But this is an exception, and this step taken by the prosecutor's office can be attributed to the public attention paid to this incident in Russia, Israel and in Jewish communities around the world.)

Indeed, the phrases "anti-Semitic sign" and "the incitement of inter-ethnic hostility" were used only by the media, and in statements from some politicians and public figures.

Under pressure from the public and the press, it was announced that the incident in Kemerovo would be investigated by the prosecutor's office in the Yaisk district in the Kemerovo region based upon Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which bans the incitement of ethnic hatred

The number of these criminal cases has grown in correlation with the growth in the number of violent anti-Semitic acts. The cases are based upon Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. However, it is important to note that over the past two years, only 12 people have been convicted based upon this article.

On February 8, a Samara court found the publisher of the anti-Semitic newspaper Alex-Inform, Oleg Kitter, not guilty of inciting inter-ethnic hostility. Kitter called for the destruction of synagogues and for the forcing of Jews and rabbis out of Russia. His newspaper published anti-Semitic forgeries like "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and "The Catechism of the Jew in the USSR," as well as articles attacking the Jewish community in Samara and Jewish officials in the regional administration, and anti-Semitic cartoons and slogans.

During the course of the two year trial, Kitter still managed to be a candidate for mayor in Samara (he got around 2,000 votes), and create a regional branch of the National Supremacy Party of Russia and the so-called "Secret Center for the Struggle against AIDS, Rats, and Kikes." During Kitter's election campaign, the circulation of his newspaper reached 200,000 copies. Newspapers were placed in practically every mailbox in Samara. Among Kitter's supporters were General Albert Makashov and the ex-press minister Boris Miponov.

In the end, the judge did not find that the actions of Kitter constituted a crime, and Kitter was completely free to continue with his hate-mongering.

Also in February 2002 in Volgograd, the legal proceedings for the case against the newspaper Kolokol were completed. The newspaper was accused of inciting ethnic and religious hatred. Judicial red-tape, lasting many years, ended with an initial victory for the editor of Kolokol, Stanislav Terentev. The court's decision stated "the materials published in Kolokol are not related to Nazism, and they justly criticize such political concepts as Zionism, Freemasonry, and Judaism."

In March 2002, a criminal case involving the newspaper Russkaya Obshina Ekaterinburga was closed. The newspaper distributed anti-Semitic and xenophobic materials in the city. Several months ago, the ministry of the Russian Federation for press affairs, television and radio, and the means of mass communication issued an official warning to the editorial staff of the newspaper for breaking the law "On the mass media."

However, in the past such warnings have not been effective against publishers of anti-Semitic publications. Using loopholes in Russian legislation and in the legal proceedings, they continue their activities. They initiate legal proceedings against their accusers (based upon insulting their honor and dignity), they win one legal battle after another, and demand that the warnings be rescinded.

In addition to the well-known publishers of anti-Semitic materials, there are "unnamed" publishers spreading anti-Semitic literature in the capital and the regions of Russia as well.

Since May 2002, in the Voronezh newspaper Bereg, a series of articles have been featured dealing with the so-called "Jewish question." In one of these articles - "What Solzhenitsyn Didn't Say," the author asserts that the Talmud allows Jews to commit crimes against non-Jews. The founders of Bereg are part of the administration of Voronezh.

In May in Cheboksary, anti-Semitic leaflets were posted in the entranceways of residential houses. The writer of the leaflets alleged that Jews "captured absolute power in Russia" and that "with the help of and for worldwide Zionism, they have perpetrated an ecumenical pogrom" comparable to Hitler's invasion. The police conducted a review of the given facts, however, no criminal case has been initiated to date.

Officially, the Constitution of the Russian Federation outlaws such activities. The relevant part (Article 29) reads: "Propaganda and agitation inciting social, racial, ethnic, or religious hatred and animosity is impermissible." The liability for violation of this article is envisaged in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Article 282, maximum penalty - imprisonment for up to 5 years). Unfortunately, law enforcement and the judiciary do not actively enforce this statute.

Despite the Russian Orthodox Church's proclamation: "Basic Social Concepts" on tolerance and the elimination of anti-Semitism, several publications of the regional dioceses were involved in the spreading of anti-Semitic materials.

The Ulyanovsk newspaper Pravoslavnoy Simbirsk (No. 4, April 24, 2002, one of the founders of the Ulyanovsk Diocese Administration of the Russian Orthodox Church) published an article written by Father Neofin called "Their Father, the Devil," where the author, a converted Jew, tells of plans to create a World Government, the leaders of which would be Talmudic Jews. The author tells his readers to "observe these people closely - their customs, their temperament, and their habits" and re-tells the age-old blood libel. In the same issue, the story of young Gavril appears. Gavril in 1960 was kidnapped by Jews who pricked him all over his body in order for his blood to flow.

The so-called "Yekatarinburg Case" initiated in the beginning of 2001 and based on the Yekatarinburg Diocese's dissemination of anti-Semitic materials (a book by Sergei Neilus, called Close by the Doors, published in the Orthodox press) was closed at the beginning of 2002 for the extremely odd reason that "criminal events were absent." The prosecutor's office decision essentially determined that the dissemination of the infamous forgery "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" was not a criminal act.

Statements and actions by the representatives of the Yekatarinburg Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church were highly contradictory. On the one hand, they asserted that this book could in no way be considered anti-Semitic; it must be considered as the product of spiritual research into religious thought (according to the press secretary of the Yekatarinburg Diocese, Boris Kosinski). On the other hand, they hurried to assure the representatives of the Jewish community of Yekatarinburg that the book was taken off the shelves (according to Archbishop Vikenti of Yekatarinburg and Verkhotursk).

In contrast to the Communist years, there is no government anti-Semitism in Russia. Indeed, in practically all of his public appearances dealing in one way or other with the subject of Jews, President Vladimir Putin has sharply condemned anti-Semitism. At the same time, extremist politicians do propagate anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. The statements of several Russian politicians are in line with the words of such people as Makashev, Kondratenko, Limonov and Mikhaylov.

On February 26 at the founding conference of the People's Patriotic Party of Russia, a new political party on the political left, the head ideologue of the new political organization, former Russian Minister of Defense, Army General Igor Rodionov, dedicated his report to exposing "domestic and foreign Zionism" that is fighting a despicable and expensive war" against Russia. "The main destructive force in Russia was and is liberalism," read Rodionov in a well performed military voice. The spread of liberalism can be attributed to "'demo-fascists' who in reality are nothing but Masonic-Zionists." According to Rodionov, individuals of the Jewish nationality are in key posts in the corridors of power, controlling 70% of industry and a majority of the mass media. In connection with these "strikingly obvious" facts, the new party expressed the desire to "require that the Jewish people condemn Zionism and return all that was stolen to Russia." Most importantly, they should "repent before the Russian people for the crimes committed by terrorists and extremists of the Jewish nationality."

The sharp surge of anti-Semitic incidents provoked several positive steps by Government officials. In June, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, awarded to Tatiana Sapunova the Medal of Courage for her attempt to remove a booby-trapped, anti-Semitic poster from the shoulder of the Kiev Highway.

The State Duma finally passed a law presented by the President on the fight against political extremism.

At the same time, however, the Duma Deputies refused to approve the proposed SPS project "On the adoption of the necessary measures in connection with those who participate in acts of anti-Semitism, nationalism, and extremism" and send it to President Putin. They tabled the bill and delayed its passage for some time. In addition, individual Deputies stated that, "in reality, there is no anti-Semitism, nationalism, and extremism in Russia, just isolated cases" (A. Mitrofanov, LDPR).

• Law enforcement must follow the guidelines set out in Methodological Recommendations 'On the use of special knowledge about cases and materials dealing with the incitement of nationality-based, racial and religious hatred' (developed by the Office of the Prosecutor General) when dealing with cases involved incendiary material in publications. Following these recommendations accurately, a qualified group of experts can assess xenophobic texts and publications and determine if they are in violation of Russian law. It is also imperative to attract specialists from the country's NGOs to act as experts.



• It is imperative for law enforcement to label anti-Semitic attacks as such. The slogan "Death to Jews!" must be accepted as anti-Semitic regardless of whether the poster on which it is written is attached to a bomb or a fake bomb.



• Proactive measures are required against anti-Semitism and intolerance. This requires not only vigilance by law enforcement and the judiciary, but specialized program of tolerance and public service announcements to help promote a more tolerant public consciousness and environment in the Russian Federation.